Strange well behavior

[sailfast]

So there is the stub of the well casing sticking a few inches above the ground.

The strange part is that there is water coming up out of the well head.
Any thoughts?

 

[smstonypoint]

A flowing artesian well?

Steve

 

[nybirdman]

Sounds like a "good" thing in my book.As dry as our summer has been(Northern NY) a well that is over flowing is unreal.As stated sounds like an artesian well.If you are looking to buy or build on the property this surely would be a plus.
Build a pond nearby and run the excess there.

 

[sailfast]

I am concerned there could be some other problem.
Wondering if it might freeze in a couple months

 

[turnkey4099]

I am concerned there could be some other problem.
Wondering if it might freeze in a couple months

Itr would only feeze down to the frost level, may crack the casing. Has it flowed like that in the past?

 

[teejk]

Wow...sounds like your well is overflowing. Your well head probably has a hinged cast aluminum cap on it that you can open (a prudent man might shut off the breaker first). If you are that high, might be time to call in a well driller. We have had "abundant" rain in Wisconsin this year (we noted that we haven't had to change out our iron filters in months) so I know our well has benefited but not to that extent. Something doesn't sound right.

 

[murphy1244]

I am concerned there could be some other problem.
Wondering if it might freeze in a couple months

Are they fracking a well there? Just asking...

 

[teejk]

Are they fracking a well there? Just asking...

That came to mind and I think they are fracking in Ohio. OP didn't say how deep his well is. A typical residential well outfit will drill only as deep as they have to in order to find a "vein" that they think will supply the normal household (our well is only 55' deep). Fracking goes much deeper than that but I suppose it could disturb what was considered "bedrock" that is usually a huge layer of rock so I doubt it (our well driller actually went deeper than 55' and lost the vein...said if he went deeper it might be 300' or 600' or deeper, all through solid granite where he said the water quality would be poor). All depends on local conditions I guess but around here that gives me a an indication of the depth of the "bedrock". Will be interesting to see what the OP says...if it is due to fracking then people need to know.

 

[roadhunter]

Is the pump running?

 

[DieselBound]

Is the pump running?

Yeah, that's what I'd want to rule out right up front!

Any records of this well? In my area wells are recorded by the county and you can find out lots of information such as depth, screen sizes, output and other stuff.

Best to consult with a local well company.

Careful with surface-level water!

 

[BoylermanCT]

If it is artesian, it probably won't freeze. My parents have an artesian well and it has never frozen in over 25 Connecticut winters. They dug a pond and piped the artesian well to fill it up and provide year round flow. They have also used it to fill their 24' above ground pool (took 36 hours) and they have a pump in the pond hooked up to 4 different sprinklers for their gardens. An artesian well is good to have, but you probably don't want it as your primary water source, they are usually not deep enough for safety / code. My parent's main well is 280' deep. They just hit the artesian part way down.

Now I had a friend in Ohio who has an artesian natural gas well. Was hand dug in the 1800's. They get free natural gas to power their furnace, fireplace, stove, dryer, grill etc. Now that's a jackpot!

 

[DieselBound]

Any water source is fine as long as it's treatable, economically that is. My well is 38' deep (30 gpm; fish hatchery up the road has a well that puts out 750 gpm!). Very low iron content; but, it has Iron Reducing Bacteria (IRB) and that IRB needs to be killed in order to treat the iron. I inject H2O2 and have a contact tank: I go through less than 1 gallon of H2O2 per year. This takes care of the IRB and any other bacteria that may be there. Then it's a simple catalytic carbon backwash tank and a final cartridge filter and I'm good.

Initially I had a spring feed (it was from off-property and wasn't guaranteed to be a permanent supply). There was no filtration or treatment on that water! It was great water but it tested for bacteria: I put in a simple filtration and UV system and ran that for a couple of years until I rehabbed the well).

After lots of research (and a financial curveball) I decided to rehab the well. Most folks will say that it's better to go with what you know than to drill a new hole and then be exposed to a set of potential new problems: someone just about a mile from me has a well that's about 180' deep and it's only putting out something like 3gpm; that's an expensive hole for such a small output; and who knows what sort of mineral issues they have to deal with).

 

[Pettrix]

The shallower the well, the more prone it is to bacteria and contamination. A deeper well acts like a natural filter since it has to pass the many layers of earth to get to the water well table.

Shallow water wells are advantageous but there are some cons:

1 - More prone to bacteria and contamination
2 - If building a home in an area with a shallow water table, your foundation can experience issues

If you dig down 5-10 feet and hit standing water, that will be problematic with a house foundation. In earthquake prone areas, that can lead to "liquefaction" which is a very bad thing if a quake should strike.

Ideally, having a well that is not too deep but not too shallow, that is best. I would say anything around 100+ feet is good since it gives adequate depth to filter out contamination. Wells in this area that are shallow (20-40 feet below grade), they tend to see e-coli and other bacterial and chemical (fertilizer) contamination.

 

[1965]

It won't freeze as the water is coming up from below frost line and typically will maintain a temperature of about 67 degrees. If I had such a well I would be running the water through a ground source heat pump in my house and get the benefits of free heat in the winter months and free air conditioning in the summer months a win win.

 

[Pumpmd]

You need to know how many gpm the well is artesian? Artesian wells like to cause problems with the running water above ground for people. Easiest way is to install a pitless adapter below ground to your frost level and divert the water below ground where it won't cause problems but you need to install the right sizes pitless adapter and pipe size to flow your gpm rate.

 

[roadhunter]

This is one of those threads where the OP is no longer around. It would be lovely to know the whole story here as when you read the OP there are many ways to interpret what is going on with everything from the switch is broken and running the pump 24/7 or the fracing in the region has caused some water pressure to build.

 

[cqaigy2]

Yes, i'd want to know if the pump is running when the water is coming out of the well casing.